With Great Power: Sins Wrath
by Tork
Summary: A new enemy leads an army of villains against Spider-Man. Part II is written by Jeff's writrzblok. Part III will hopefully come shortly.
1. A Trap for the Spider

NOTE: I must apologize for my lateness. Unfortunately, school and life got in the way. I hope you understand. Now on with the show…

Previously in Spider-Man: With Great Power…

Spider-Man has fought a battle on two fronts. Mephisto has sworn revenge upon the Parkers for rejecting his offer, attacking Spider-Man twice already in his quest for vengeance. At the same time, Norman Osborn has decided to eliminate Spider-Man as an obstacle to his still unspecified plans, sending former friends, old enemies, and adversaries anew to deal with the wall crawler.

As if these two weren't enough, a third new threat in the form of an enigmatic man in black has been collecting some of Spider-Man's old foes in a bid to exact payback from Spider-Man. Bringing in such dangerous foes as the Hobgoblin, the Rhino, and Electro; this new enemy won't stop until Peter Parker has paid for his sins.

And if this new foe has any say on the matter, Peter will be start paying now…

"Uh-uh. There's NO way I'm budging on this. No way, no how."

Peter Parker stood firm, arms crossed and face stern. He'd faced down the likes of the Juggernaut before and lived. He wasn't to yield.

Neither was his wife.

"No buts! WE are going to go to the theater and WE are going to go see what I want to see!", the fiery redhead interjected.

Peter was standing his ground… sort of. "Oh, come on! I'm compromising on going to see a play, right? Can I at least pick what I want to see?"

MJ shot back with "Oh, I KNOW what you're going to pick. No way. We're seeing _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ and that is that."

Peter let out an annoyed moan that'd make Homer Simpson proud. "But I don't want to see that! It's stupid and cheesy!"

MJ's eyebrow lifted into an arch. "You said you loved it the last time you saw it."

Peter retorted, "You were IN IT! I could have seen _Springtime for Hitler_ and still love it if you were in it!"

MJ wasn't going to back off, "Doesn't matter… we're still seeing it."

Peter could feel himself losing ground. "Can't we just see what I want to see?"

"WE ARE NOT GOING TO SEE _SPAMALOT_!!"

Peter went from a firm superhero to a pouting five-year-old in seconds flat. "Bu—bu—but… I want to see Spamalot…"

MJ let out an irritated sigh. "Peter… please. I'm several weeks pregnant and I really need this. Please just go with me to see this. I'd really appreciate it."

That was it. A man who lifted several tons of wreckage off him, bested villains far more powerful than himself, and saved the world time and again just once again found himself unable to resist the pleas of a certain pretty redhead bearing the seed of his loins. His head dropped in a signal of defeat

"Ok… fine… but I'm not going to enjoy it!"

"Oh, yes, you are!"

"Yes, dear…"

Meanwhile…

A black helicopter descended from the red dusk sky onto the roof of the Daily Bugle. Eight figures jumped out to the concrete surface below and made their way to the large door leading to the inside. Electro grabbed the door handle and sent a surge of electricity into the door, shorting out the computerized lock and leaving the entryway to their target wide open.

The group's mysterious employer then turned to give the group their instructions. "Hobgoblin, Vulture—you two circle the building and wait for my signal. Rhino, you stay up here and wait, too. The rest of you are to come with me."

As the team split up, the man in black led his team down the stairway to the offices of J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Joe Robertson and all the major players of the Daily Bugle paper.

As they made their way down, Electro had the need to inject. "So, what do we call this little group?"

"Do we have to call ourselves anything?" Chameleon responded.

"Well… usually when we have these groups of villains, we call ourselves something."

"So?"

"So, are we the Sinister Eight or something?"

"That's stupid. And why does all these groups feel the need to put "Sinister" in their name? It's not like we're being run by that albino Mengele the X-Men always deal with."

"Well, what about the Masters?"

"It's been taken."

"The Spider-Man Revenge Squad?"

"Too on the nose."

"The Legion of Doom?"

"You want to get sued?"

The man in black interjected himself into the middle of this absurd debate. "Mr. Dillion, if I knew you'd be such a blathering idiot, I would have pumped two into your head and taken Toomes alone. Now, shut up before I decide to cut my losses."

Reaching their destination, Delilah kicked open the door and tossed a flashbang into the midst which served to disorient the population inside.

The villains ran inside and began to cause havoc, breaking everything they could and knocking out all in attendance. The air felt hot and dry as lightning bolts shot every which way. The sound of panic was sharp and deafening. Unconscious bodies fell in every direction.

Eyeballing Jameson, the mystery man could see Old Flattop dash behind his desk with his phone. A small smile spread across the mysterious figure's face. All was going according to plan…

Moments later…

Mary Jane stood furious when arms crossed and brow stern. "You are NOT going out there tonight!"

Peter stood, half clad in his Spider-Man uniform as the TV blared the crisis at the Bugle, once again invoking the spirit of the mighty toddler. "Bu—Bu—But… people! Danger! I'm Spider-Man! Must protect!"

"For the love of God, Peter…" MJ said in exasperation "…can't you let the Avengers or the Fantastic Four or whoever take care of that? Let somebody whose actually licensed for this take care of it for once."

"MJ, the Bugle is MY beat! My friends are in there! I can't let them down!"

"Oh, yes, because the company whose been trashing your name and calling you a menace since you had pimples… oh, yes, just the paragon of fellowship right there!"

"You know what I mean! This is important here!"

MJ held her face in frustration. "Dang it, Peter, you PROMISED me this. You promised me. All this stuff is just going to drive me to drink. Can't you just ONCE let the authorities handle this?"

Peter gave the look more dreaded than the sad puppy look. It was the "Power and Responsibility" look. You just can't beat the "Power and Responsibility" look.

MJ let out a sigh. "Fine… you could meet me at the theater. Just go save the Bugle."

Peter let out a big, goofy grin before pulling on the rest of his outfit and leaping to the window to jump out the window.

MJ interjected before he departed, "But if you're a second late, I'll march to that Bugle myself, waste the entire lot of them and DRAG you to see Grease every night for the next month."

"Baby…" Spider-Man as his mask came down, "… that's why you're my woman."

Back at the Daily Bugle…

The man in black stood patiently at the center of the office. A little perspiration was starting to shake loose. His heart beat a little faster than usual. He was getting restless. His prey should have been here by now.

Relief came in the form of a gargling voice of a decrepit old man over the walkie-talkie.

"Spider-Man is coming your way! I repeat, Spider-Man is coming your way!" Vulture squealed into the radio.

The man in black responded, "Get to your position with Kingsley. Initiate the next step in two minutes exactly." The game was afoot.

Not ten seconds later, a ball of red and blue crashed through the window. Spider-Man took a quick survey of his surroundings when his Spider-Sense blared like crazy. He ducked in time to see two silver tentacles swing past his head. The hero instinctively fell close to the ground to give a leg sweep that sent Lady Octopus crashing to the floor.

"Hey, not that I mind you guys trying to drag me away from 50's slang and greasy hair, but if you guys could manage to do it when my wife ISN'T being a volcano of partum mayhem, that'd just be super-de-duper."

His Spider-Sense then shot off again as he twisted into a human cigarette to avoid the electric blast flying just past his body. With his feet connecting to the wall, the web-slinger shot a line of web to the downed mad scientist before him and mule kicked her into the green and yellow buffoon twenty paces away. The two villains managed to slam backwards to the cubicle behind Dillion.

Peter then laid eyes on the man in black, the man behind everything. His eyes bulged behind the expansive white material in front of them. He felt his pulse quicken and his blood feel like high voltage.

"Gabriel? Is that you?"

The man smiled slightly like a cat soon ready to devour the mouse. He was Gabriel Stacy, the son of Gwen Stacy and the brother of his sister, Sarah. Some time before, he initiated an attack on both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, men he had no idea were the same until one fateful day in a cemetery. From then on, Gabriel's life had been a whirlwind of turmoil. Learning his father was, in fact, the lying sociopath who was the real party deserving of the twins' rage for their mother's death, Gabriel donned the mantle of the Goblin. After being defeated and separated from his beloved sister, Gabriel was a stew of amnesic and paranoid frenzies. That day is the past, however. Gabriel now stood before Spider-Man, purpose renewed and destiny acknowledged.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Mr. Parker…"

Spider-Man shot back, "Gabriel… what you doing? Stop this madness! This is insanity!"

Gabriel brushed the plea aside. "Oh, what? I'm going to hurt a lot of people? These innocent lives could be critically injured? Don't give me your projected, sanctimonious babble. YOU'RE the man here whose put them in danger! You talk of responsibility, but you NEVER accept it yourself. You put on your mask and punch dangerous people in the face and then act indignant when those people end up hurting those around you. But, look at you. You don't care. You never cared. Not even when your precious aunt dies because of you. If anyone here is insane, it's you."

Spider-Man was so shocked, he neglected to notice his Spider-Sense screaming at him over the Chameleon charging behind him with a cattle prod. The voltage was excruciating and sharp. Peter's scream ripped through the air like a wounded lion's. The bolts seemed to dance in Spider-Man's nervous system forever.

Chameleon lifted the prod only to have come crashing down upon the wall-crawler's head. And again. And again. And again. The beating felt like a lifetime. The Chameleon's audible glee shot out like a little kid at Christmas. It wasn't long before Spider-Man was on the ground in unbearable agony.

Delilah came running, sword drawn and intent murderous. Leaping to a desk nearby, the assassin came jumping into a pounce, ready to gut Spider-Man like a downed kill.

"NO!" Gabriel's voice was authoritative and stern. It was clear death was not yet set for Spider-Man. Gun drawn, Gabriel fired three shots that hit Delilah in center mass. She flew back, eyes rolling up and body going steadily limp.

The woman hit the ground hard with a horrible thud. Blood poured out of the three holes in her body. Her breath was labored and her vitality was clearly in jeopardy.

The Chameleon shot a look of bewilderment and shock. Gabriel shot back with a cold and stone-hard look. "He isn't to be killed. Not yet."

The pale faced disguise artist complied. He had no intention of angering his new boss.

Suddenly, however, red and blue flashed yet again as Spider-Man leaped to the ceiling and dove towards Gabriel. His feet connected to the villain's chest as both came down with a crash.

Groggy and disoriented, Gabriel managed to yell into his still-live radio, "Toomes! Kingsley! NOW!"

Spider-Man turned to see a mass of black orbs outside speeding quickly towards the office. Glass shattered as the orb came racing through the air before stopping to explode in a blob of green smoke and emerald fire.

The oxygen became scarce in the room as the jade smog filled the floor. Spider-Man turned away from his fallen opponent to gag and cough.

Gabriel rose to his feet as he yelled into the radio, "Rhino, drop now!"

Seconds later, Peter Parker could hear the building rattle and see the foundations shake as the grey mass of muscle came crashing down on top of him. The force easily pushed him down as he continued onto the floor below. He slammed down with an impact that left the floor cracked and tarnished. He could feel his ribs slide and crack as he could hear the helicopter blades whizzing outside. The villains got away.

Still, he wondered, why go through all this trouble to not kill him. It didn't make sense.

Nevertheless, it wasn't the time to debate this. He had to change clothes, go to Broadway in ten minutes , and manage to not let his wife figure out he just suffered cracked ribs.

"Ah…" he said to himself "…the life of an illegal superhero."

"You're really cutting it close here, Pete." MJ said with a scowl.

"Hey, I made it, right?" Peter said with his clothes still shuffled and odd placed.

His wife gave him a good glare before saying, "I suppose."

Peter knew he was still on the razor's edge. "Um… we'll go get dinner at a nice restaurant later?"

Her face remained unchanged.

"Uh… we'll rent a nice chick flick to watch tomorrow?"

Her glare was like stone.

"I'll… uh… take you shoe-shopping?"

MJ finally let out that sly giggle that only came out of her and evil, little seven-year old girls that got everything. "Okay."

Finally, they departed inside for a night of show tunes and 50's kitsch.

On the ledge across the street stood the remaining villains, watching the hero like a hawk on a mouse. The plan worked. The gas nullified his Spider-Sense, allowing them to track him without alerting him. Now, all they had to do was sit and wait before the real fun began…

To be continued…

NEXT ISSUE: Gabriel Stacy and his gang once again go after Spider-Man as the truth behind his conception is revealed…


	2. The Price We Pay

"With Great Power: Sins Wrath part 2"

"With Great Power: Sins Wrath-The Price We Pay"

Part Two written by Jeff's writrzblok

Last time on "With Great Power"…

Gabriel Stacy, the genetically altered child of a one night stand between Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn, has assembled a team of villains consisting of Rhino, Chameleon, Electro, Carolyn Trainer (the second Doctor Octopus), Roderick Kingsley (the Hobgoblin) and the Vulture to gain revenge upon the wall-crawler. After a puzzling, yet brutal attack at the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man contemplates what his former love's offspring is planning.

What was Gabriel waiting for? That question plagued the mind of the ever amazing Spider-Man as he sat there on a bench in Macy's shoe department in his "European platinum blond" disguise. He watched Mary Jane prance around in a pair of red Vera Wang high heels. Pushing the blonde hair from her wig away from her face, she said, "These are just absolutely gorgeous! I can't believe they have them in my size."

Peter thought to himself, _Hey, Mephisto, about that deal…_ but from his mouth came, "Sweetheart, you have the average foot size for a woman of your height, weight age and build. I'm fairly certain they would've had your size."

MJ let out a huffed sigh and said, "You're determined to ruin this for me, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry, MJ. I'm just not feeling too well," Peter said, sitting up. As he moved, he winced from the pain of being driven through a floor by Rhino a few hours ago during that bizarre attack.

From all the years of seeing her husband come home bruised and battered, she gained a healthy knowledge of what was wrong. "It's about the fight at the bugle, isn't it?" she asked, sitting next to him on the bench.

"It's just crazy. They had me dead to rights and they leave? And there was something oddly familiar about that gas that Gabriel used."

"Gabriel? As in, Gabriel Stacy?" she said, taken aback.

"Yeah, he was behind it," he replied, "It seems like the standard issue 'I'll get you, Spider-Man' type of team-up."

"Wait. Did you say 'team'?"

"Yeah, Chameleon, Lady Ock, Rhino, Hobgoblin, Vulture, and Electro, to be exact. He shot Delilah when she tried to finish me off. After that, they hit me with some kind of gas. Finally, big, gray and ugly pounds me through the floor. Instead of collecting their spider-trophy, they made like Daniel Day Lewis and vanished. Not that I'm complaining, mind you."

"Well, we need to be extra careful from now on."

"Yeah, I agree. Now put the shoes back."

"But Tigerrrrrr…"

Watching her walk away with a pout, he said, "Don't tiger me--OW!!" Peter yelped as a red rubber ball collided with his head.

A little boy ran up to him and picked up the ball. With a giggle and smile that you couldn't stay mad at, he said, "Sorry, mister. It slipped."

"Don't worry about it, kid," he replied, "just watch--" he paused. Why didn't his Spider-Sense go off? Any other time he would've caught that ball and handed it back to the boy with a kind word and a smile. Within that moment, he remembered where he smelled that gas before. Norman Osborn used it numerous times in the past to nullify his near-precognitive ability.

Bolting from the bench, he grabbed MJ and said, "We have to go NOW!" before she could protest, he said, "It's too dangerous to be out."

Seconds later, an explosion from the ceiling shook the building and dimmed the lights in the store. As debris flew around, Gabriel floated down on Hobgoblin's glider, with Kingsley himself standing behind him.

"I couldn't agree more," Gabriel said.

Ripping off his wig and fake mustache, Peter heard the clanking of metallic arms behind him as they coiled around Mary Jane's waist, seizing her in their unforgiving grip. "Peter!" she shouted. He turned to see Carolyn Trainer in a shredded fur coat, her punk-style pink hair and a smug smirk of self-satisfaction across her face. His thoughts shifted immediately to the baby Mary Jane is pregnant with; HIS baby.

He fired a web ball directly into Trainer's face, blinding her. MJ then drove a punch directly into her face, staggering her. Electro and Chameleon appeared to Peter's left while Rhino and Vulture stood to his right. He fired a web-line at Hobgoblin's glider, specifically hitting the acceleration pedal. It jerked Gabriel and Kingsley off their feet, sending him crashing onto a display. Peter flipped over the glider and shouted, "DUCK!" to MJ.

As the superhero's wife complied, the glider drove itself deep into Trainer's stomach and arced upward, plowing her into the ceiling and out of the fight for now. Rhino charged full force toward his enemy. Peter grabbed the large gray thug by his horn and, using his momentum, hurled him off his feet toward Chameleon and Electro. Both men scattered as Rhino plowed through the wall, taking himself out.

Seeing a display pair of rubber rain boots, the wall-crawler shot a pair of web-lines and pulled them to him. They flew onto his hands and he twirled through the air, dodging a bolt of electricity from the green and yellow-clad villain. With a sharp uppercut, he used the boot to insulate his bare hands from touching Electro. The force of the punch sent him from the shoe department and into a nearby water fountain where he fizzled and shorted out, becoming unconscious.

As Vulture swooped towards him, Peter tossed a boot at him, nailing Adrian Toomes in his bird-like nose. He spiraled into a tailspin and crashed against a shoe rack, spilling sneakers all over the floor.

MJ tried to run for help, but Chameleon grabbed her by her arms. "I remember the time you hit me with a bat," he said, "I'm going to pay you back for that, you…" A sharp back-kick to the groin ended his rant. Another sharp right cross put him on the floor. _Thank you Captain America_ she thought, remember the brief self-defense training he gave her and Peter.

Suddenly, she felt Gabriel's hand close around her throat. Lifting her off her feet, he says, "PARKER!!" Peter had Roderick Kingsley in his clutches when he turned around. Seeing the young woman struggle to breathe, he said, "Surrender now. Or I break her neck."

"Let her go," Peter said, shoving Hobgoblin aside, "She's not the one you want."

"I don't know. Maybe I'm going about this all wrong," Gabriel said, bringing her closer to his face. He continued saying, "Maybe I should focus all of my rage and efforts upon her. After all, she is the one who replaced my mother in your heart. And as we both know…everyone around you has this nasty habit of not living."

"Look, Gabriel, your problem is with me. Not with MJ. I'm the one who waged a selfish petty war with Norman, remember? Take me. Do whatever you want with me, but she has done nothing wrong except love me. Please."

MJ, feeling her eyelids getting heavy from lack of air, whispered, "Peter…"

Gabriel looked over at Peter and then toward MJ. Tossing her aside, he walked over to Peter and stared him directly in the eyes. "You're right, Peter. She's not the one I want. I can see why you like her, though. Tough, loyal, and a looker; no accounting for taste, I'm guessing."

"Would you just get on with it?" Peter said, gritting his teeth and waiting for the inevitable to come.

"As you wish," said the Gray Goblin, who motioned to Rhino. The big gray monstrosity pulled himself out of the rubble and head-butted Peter square in the face, knocking him out. As MJ gasped for breath, Gabriel turned his gaze toward her. A smirk crawled across his face while Rhino slung Peter over his shoulder. Electro pulled himself out of the fountain while Chameleon, Vulture and Carolyn Trainer rejoined their boss. With a slight chuckle, Gabriel said, "Sorry for your loss."

With that, the villains made their escape, disappearing into the city with their prize. All she could do was lay there in the wake of the destruction and weep for what they would do to him.

But then again, she thought, there was something else she could do. Getting to her feet, she hurried to the one place she knew there would be help.

Running a hand over his bald scalp and down through his bushy goatee, Jonas Harrow paced back and forth through the infirmary. He'd been assigned this detail due to his good behavior as well as medical expertise as a surgeon. Most of the maladies he'd looked after were mostly coughs, colds, aches. He would've expected something more alien and interesting. After all, he was imprisoned in the superhuman prison smack in the middle of the Negative Zone. Who knows what kind of viruses and germs and bacteria could be out there.

A guard walked into the infirmary. Wearing a large, full face helmet, dark blue flak jacket with a gas gun, stun baton and a heavy Kevlar vest, he began to take off the equipment and said, "Evening, Doc."

"How can you tell?" Harrow replied. It was a fair question, though not completely devoid of sarcasm. Time flowed differently in The Negative Zone than it did on Earth. Two weeks in the alien dimension was akin to an hour in Earth time, and that was a conservative estimate.

"Shut your yap and let's get this over with, you know I need my shot." Jonas did indeed know. The guard happened to be diabetic and it was time for him to get his insulin injection. "You know," the officer said while he sat down in a chair, "I always thought I'd get to travel; see the world. This is not what I had in mind."

As the maniacal scientist administered the alcohol on the guard's arm, he said, "I think I can say with a comfortable degree of certainty that spending time in a government detention center in a hostile alien dimension is not exactly high on people's to-do lists." The guard looked away, having always been uncomfortable with needles. After a split second wince when the doctor put in the syringe, Harrow said, "But like the old saying goes, all good things..."

"What do you mean by--" the guard paused. His throat began closing up. Gripping his neck and reaching for the skinnier Jonas Harrow, he tried to send pleas for help, but with his throat completely closed, he simply fell to the floor. After convulsing for thirty seconds, the guard's eyes rolled back in his head.

Jonas Harrow smiled wickedly throwing away a syringe full of penicillin. Reading the medical file on the guard, Jonas had learned of a violent allergy to the anti-bacteria that existed since childhood. Phase one was complete. Phase two, however, would be decidedly more difficult. He grabbed the com-link and put it to his ear. The passwords changed every ten minutes, so as not to give any escapees an advantage.

Removing a watch from the dead guard's wrist, he slid it on his own. The GPS chips inside let the central command know where the guards were at all times. There was still the matter of cameras along the corridors. Grabbing pillows and stuffing them under his shirt, he put on the Kevlar vest and the rest of the guard's clothing.

He wasn't entirely sure this plan was going to work. After all, it wasn't as if no one tried to escape the superhuman prison before. However, to cause the kind of trouble his employer was asking him to do would require every ounce of intelligence he had, brilliant though it may be. After stuffing the guard's body in a medical supply closet, Jonas put on the helmet and walked out of the infirmary.

Mary Jane had entered the secret entrance into Doctor Strange's new Sanctum Sanctorum. Bursting through the door into a hallway, she saw Luke Cage sitting on a couch watching a DVD, Iron Fist and Wolverine discussing the merits of writing a book called "K'un Lun for Dummies" Ronin and Echo were at the far end of the room training in close-quarters hand-to-hand.

"We've got a situation!" MJ shouted. All but Echo (who is deaf) paused since she was not looking directly at Mary Jane when she entered. Ronin tapped her on the shoulder and pointed her toward the distraught redhead.

After explaining the events of the past few hours as well as the complicated and tragic story of Gabriel and Sarah Stacy, MJ said, "We have to find him. There's no telling what he'll do to Peter."

"If he wanted the bug dead, he'd be dead," Wolverine blurted out curtly. A sharp glare from MJ made him pause and hold up in hands apologetically.

Ronin, otherwise known as Clint Barton the former Hawkeye, put in his two cents, saying, "He's right. Gabriel had the chance to kill you both right then and there but he settled for kidnapping Peter. Why?"

"Asking ourselves that question will not produce answers," said Iron Fist, "Are you sure you've told us everything you know about this young man, Mary Jane?"

She nodded her head and said, "That's all I know."

Echo spoke up and said, "With the villains you had said were with him, it must've taken him a considerable amount of time to bring them together. Plus, most of them were held or in custody of the government, meaning he has insider information or knows how to get it. And if he is an Osborn, he'll have a hideout complete with technological masking devices."

Mary Jane looked around and said, "Where's Doctor Strange?"

Luke Cage shut his phone and said, "He's in Tibet; said something about going to 'pay his respects.' He said he'd be here as soon as he could, but until then, we're on our own as to how to find Peter."

Holding a spider-tracer in her hand, MJ looked at it intently and wondered about how many times he told her not to leave the house without it. He claimed it was attuned to his spider-sense and it was the only way in which to find her as quickly as possible. Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she said, "Wait a minute." She bolted into the bedroom she and Peter share, leaving the rest to follow her.

As she knelt down and rummaged through their belongings, MJ pulled out a small receiver and said, "This is how we're going to find Peter,"

Clint's eyes narrowed and he said, "But that works on Spider-Tracers which you've got in your hand."

"I know," she replied, "But it's attuned to his Spider-Sense. Maybe if we somehow rig this thing to cause his Spider-Sense to go haywire, we could probably track that signal to wherever he's been hiding. By now, the gas that Gabriel hit Peter with to shut down his sense must have worn off."

"One problem," Wolverine said with his arms crossed, "Anyone know how to rewire a spider-tracer?"

Standing up in the Canadian claw-wielder's face, she stared him down. With the sternest of looks, MJ said, "Logan, if you have a better idea that doesn't involve Doctor Strange cutting his trip short, let's have it."

Holding out his palm, Wolverine said, "Hand it here. I know a thing or two about electronics. I'm no Peter Parker, but I'll do what I can."

"That's all I'm asking."

"But I'm going to need some time to figure this stuff out for myself."

"We don't have a lot of it to go around, but I get it."

"You know, Peter'd be proud of you right now," said Wolverine as he went to work. That one comment brought the first smile to Mary Jane's face since before Gabriel kidnapped her husband.

Peter's eyes opened slowly. Surrounding him was Rhino, Hobgoblin, and Lady Ock. Electro and Vulture seemed to be near the door, guarding it from any chance of escape. Peter noticed that he stood bolted to a wall by his waist, wrists and shins. He looked down to see he was still wearing his civilian clothes. Glancing around, he muttered, "This place definitely has that 'yes, I'm totally sane and a functioning member of society' vibe to it."

"You know how I can tell you're awake?" Gabriel's voice came from behind the wall of villainous flesh, "You're telling pathetic jokes."

"And you've inherited poppa goblin's sense of humor," quipped the captured wall crawler, "That's the thing with you Osborns. It's just not fun and games until someone gets disemboweled."

"Well, you have to admit," Gabriel said, coming into full view of Peter's sight with a smirk of self-satisfaction, "I come from good stock."

The hero's eyes narrowed sharply as he replied, "Ooh, ouch, that stings. Your father knocked up my girlfriend. Boo-hoo, woe is me, I get it."

"Do you?" Gabriel said, walking close to Peter's face. It was the villain's turn to narrow his eyes and stare upward, tilting his head at Peter. He continued by saying, "Do you really get it? I mean, your only source of knowledge for this is, who, your wife? You must work for CBS News."

"Boss, the machine is almost ready, no word from him yet," Chameleon spoke up while sitting by a large silver machine standing next to a wide arcing oval device standing at over twenty feet.

Peter's eyebrows perked up as he said, "'Him?' Who is he talking about?"

Gabriel flipped his hand in a nonchalant manner and replied, "We'll come back to that. But right now, I'd like for you to brush up on some reading materials. Carolyn, would you be so kind to retrieve folder 'Gabriel Alpha' please?"

"You got it, boss man," said the pink haired protégé' of Doctor Octopus as she looked him over with a gleam of attraction in her eye. A mechanical arm shot out to the filing cabinet next to the machine, pulling out a folder. She handed it to him with a wink, saying, "You're welcome."

Gabriel returned the look with a stoic yet not uninterested glance and said, "Thank you."

"Careful, Gabe," Peter said with a wry smile, "She looks like the type who'd give you the gift that keeps on giving." His comment was met with a backhanded punch to the face.

As Peter spat out a crimson loogie, Gabriel opened the vanilla folder and showed him a medical document dating back several years ago. "Look under pre-existing condition." As he did so, Peter found the word Endometriosis in bold letters. His jaw would've dropped through the floor if it wasn't attached by flesh and cartilage.

He recognized the word and what it meant. Gwen would always have difficulty conceiving. "She never exhibited pain, she never told me…but…how is this…" Peter struggled to ask questions that suddenly swarmed his brain.

Gabriel nodded and sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth. He said, "As it turns out, mommy dearest was pumping too much estrogen and developed the disease once she got to her child-bearing years. Take a look at the name of the Doctor."

"Miles Warren?"

"Yeah," said the smirking villain, "He helped perform the laparoscopy to improve her chances of getting pregsies. Poor old fool probably hoped it meant she'd have his little jackals running around in play-pens, cloning the cat. In any case, I traced this information to Miles Warren himself. Apparently, he recognized me right off the bat. He told me everything, Peter; the clones, the DNA altering, the messed up parts that made absolutely no sense, EVERYTHING.

"But do you want to know what I found particularly interesting? It was my conception. The story that you have been told, about the passionate one-night stand between the crazed but charismatic old villain and the hero's dainty, saintly angel of a girlfriend, is just that. A story, a lie, a simple ruse to fool the feeble minded; no offense."

"What do you mean?" Peter said, feeling like he couldn't handle any more surprises.

"Norman didn't have sex with Gwen. He artificially inseminated her. But that's even the most messed up part. The kicker, what really floored me, was that Norman had Miles Warren implant replicated DNA into Gwen from both him and…your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."

Peter would've almost begged Rhino to punch him in the gut to see if he could have the wind knocked out of him any harder. "No…" he said, "that's not true…THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!"

"Truth is stranger than fiction, Parker! Daddy Norman came to mom, knowing that she wanted to have a family with you, Poppa Pete. It was the early stages of the cloning process, so the best incubator he could ask for was a woman's womb. Irony of ironies, Gwen just happened to be the prime candidate.

"The deal was, Norman would help Gwen become pregnant if she'd help him monitor her progress. Unfortunately, in those days, Daddy Norm's craziness was beginning to show and, well…the rest is history."

"But why," Peter whispered shakily, "why would she lie about sleeping with Norman?"

"My guess?" Gabriel replied, "It was the first thing to come to her mind. I mean, really, who'd believe such a wild and fantastic story based on word of mouth alone? Oh wait, that's right. You would!"

"I…I have a child…" Peter whispered, causing Gabriel to lean in closer. He continued by saying, "but you're not it. You're not my responsibility. Norman using his and my blood to make clones with my girlfriend is just one more way for him to screw with my head. And you kidnapping me and telling me this in order to break my spirit is a page right out of the Osborn playbook. You're as much my son as Norman is!" Peter spit in Gabriel's face, leaving a piece of spittle with a light shade of red in it.

Wiping his face and flashing a facial portrait of rage and indignation, the Gray Goblin spit back in Peter's face. "Have it your way, Peter. Let me show you why you're still alive," Gabriel said, clutching Peter's face. Forcing him to look at the machine Chameleon was sitting at, he said, "This machine is a trans-dimensional portal. It's kind of crude compared to what Tony Stark or Reed Richards might be capable of, but it gets the job done.

"Does the name Jonas Harrow ring a bell? It should. I've been contacting him with this machine while he's been locked up in the Negative Zone prison. Apparently he's made a nice little niche for himself as the resident sawbones. I approached him with a deal, help me and my colleagues onto the base…and we'll set him free. But we're not only going to be letting Dr. Harrow out to play. We're going to be having every single supervillain and metahuman criminal flooding out of that place like rats on a sinking ship.

Peter interrupted by saying, "So, what, you're going to unleash all those criminals on the Negative Zone? Annihilus will be thrilled."

Gabriel chuckled and said, "Oh no. Not the Negative Zone. Contrary to what you might believe, this isn't only about you. My two dads...locked in a constant, selfish battle for supremacy. And who was the biggest casualty of this? My mother. Her life was just fine until you came along. You tainted her. You and Norman! YOU RUINED HER!!"

Taking in a deep breath, the villainous young man calmed himself down and said, "Once we let out every prisoner of the 42, I will lead them en masse to Daddy Norman's doorstep on Thunderbolt Mountain. It'll be a massacre the likes of which no one will ever forget." "But don't worry, Poppa Pete, I'll kill you afterwards." Grabbing a syringe, he shoves it into Peter's neck, causing him to freeze up. "It's just a little something to make sure you can't cause any mischief while we're taking care of business."

As Peter felt his body go limp and numb, he heard his Spider-Sense screaming loudly to him. The drug coursing through his system rendered him unable to physically react; therefore, no one in the room had any idea the cacophony going on in his mind.

After thirty minutes of tinkering, Wolverine managed to come out of the Parker bedroom holding the receiver. "Using the tracer as a base point, I think I got it working. It's showing that Parker's somewhere northeast of here. Not sure how far, but that's the best guess we've got.

MJ smiled and said, "Well let's get moving, then…Avengers assemble and all that stuff."

Putting on his Ronin helmet, Clint said, "Who died and made her leader?"

Echo, while not hearing what he had said, apparently had an identical thought by saying, "Who died and made her leader?" Ronin simply shook his head and motioned for her to follow Luke, Iron Fist, Wolverine and MJ out the door and toward their backup mode of transportation, a flock of black Kawasaki motorcycles. As they sped off into the night, Mary Jane clung tightly to Wolverine, praying that they would make it to the hideout in time.

"Got a message from Harrow, he says he's shut down the prison's systems except for the portal. Expect opening within the next two minutes," said the Chameleon while sitting at the computer system next to the oval-shaped apparatus.

"Excellent," remarked Gabriel. Looking to Lady Ock, he said, "Carolyn, I think it's safe to assume that we can bring Mr. Parker along with us. He'll be a good boy." With that command, she tore off the manacles and coiled two of her steel arms around the hero, pulling him towards her.

An alarm began to ring out, startling the villains. Running to a monitor, Hobgoblin looked and said, "It's Parker's wife! And she brought backup!"

"The Avengers," Gabriel said, "Tell Harrow to hurry with that portal!" He thought he had prepared for the possibility that Mary Jane would bring in the Secret Avengers to help her bring Peter back. He had technologically shielded the lair from any detection. How could this have gone so wrong?

None of it mattered as an explosion of purple energy filled the emptiness of the oval portal. "Chameleon, set the machine for self-destruct! Everyone else, into the portal, now!" Lady Ock went through first, carrying a paralyzed Peter Parker with her. Next was Rhino, who was carrying a large container on his back as he stepped through. Kingsley flew through the portal on his Goblin Glider. Electro and Vulture followed the rest through.

"Self destruct in thirty seconds, boss!" shouted Chameleon right before he dove through the gateway. Gabriel let out a sharp laugh of triumph right before entering the portal himself.

Gabriel let out a sharp laugh before entering the portal himself.

Mary Jane and the rest of the Avengers filed into the abandoned Oscorp bunker which led to an underground tunnel. As they moved forward, prepared for anything, they're stopped by Wolverine, who took point. MJ whispered, "Why are we stopping?"

"Quiet! I hear something," said the claw-bearing hero. Sniffing the air to get a better read, he said, "FALL BACK!" The Avengers did as he said, rushing back to the outside in a frantic hurry. Wolverine pressed forward, hoping to get a glimpse of what was in the room before it went kablooey. Luke Cage was the last to exit right before the bunker exploded into a gigantic fireball

"NO!!" shouted Mary Jane, thinking that Peter was still in there and knowing that Wolverine was in there.

After several minutes, a smoldering golem of charred flesh and metallic bone walked from the rubble. "He wasn't there, MJ," Wolverine said, "He might've been but I heard a humming noise as well as smelled explosives coming from the room at the end of the hall. Before everything went white, I saw an oval full of purple energy fade out. It might've been some kind of portal or something. I did get a whiff of what might've been on the other side. I've only ever smelled something like that once before: the Negative Zone."

Mary Jane let out a sob, cursing herself for being too late.

To be concluded…

Next Issue: Gabriel's master plan comes to fruition culminating in an exciting showdown!


End file.
